PATH OF AFFLICTION

In this debut thriller, four Minnesota friends pocket a stack of cash they’ve stumbled on, leading to a chase involving corrupt cops and a drug cartel.

Frankie Buccetti would prefer a weekend of rest from his backbreaking job of digging trenches. But his friends talk him into an early Saturday morning of deer hunting. Surprisingly, the four men hear gunshots that aren’t theirs; Frankie convinces the others to check on the family whose land they’re currently on. What they find are bullet-riddled bodies and bags of drugs and money. The men opt to keep the cash and cover their tracks as best they can. Unfortunately, the pilfered money belongs to a Chicago-based drug cartel whose members torture people for information. Things get even more intense once the FBI, along with a few crooked cops, looks into the homicides. There may not be evidence connecting Frankie to a crime, but anyone can point a finger, including his old friend Ivan Mortenson, a “paranoid schizophrenic with bipolar tendencies.” He helps Frankie when he can, but once he learns about the newly acquired funds, Ivan may become a potential threat if he doesn’t get a chunk of the money. Few characters in Campanella’s gripping, uncompromising novel are redeemable. They engage in bloody scuffles and outright murder, with greed propelling their actions. Frankie is an exception; though he takes advantage of Ivan, he’s often sensitive to the man and his mental condition. In the same vein, recurrent violent scenes aren’t exploitative. For example, cartel members brutally interrogate someone with a power tool, a shockingly effective sequence that the author largely implies. Campanella deftly spotlights myriad characters, from Frankie and Ivan to a variety of police officers, feds, and vicious criminals. Sadly, the female players have little presence; even Frankie’s estranged mother and his ex-girlfriend aren’t much more than added burdens to his increasingly complicated life.

A sharp, hard-hitting tale of the grim and dangerous consequences of a crime.